Great North Run - I give up!

Melanie - I've always used the buses instead of the metro. As long as you want to get back into the centre of Newcastle they are very good. I think some of them may go elsewhere but I need the city centre so I'm not sure. They do a constant shuttle service so as fast as they fill up they are off. Although they obviously have to go by a rather roundabout route to avoid the road closures, it doesn't take very long at all.

If the organisers/ local councils read this, I have 2 comments to add...

1) can they please make sure there are 2 ferries on this year - an hour wait after running last year wasn't welcome

2) One possible solution to the cost could behave to arrange a home-stay programme? If local families could be encouraged to take runners for 1 or 2 nights for a small fee - runners may get more of a flavour of the area and take advantage of the northern hospitality...

Queen of Scandinavia...far from regal. Expensive and overrated and no celebrities at the so-called celeb dinner. Ran the race and enjoyed it but no thanks to Nirvana. Shame on you, Runner's World for being associated with such a disappointment.

I drove to south shields on the sat pitched my tent within quater of a mile slept like a log on my nice comfey air bed with ear plugs in,caught the metro for 1.80£ arrived in newcastle in plenty of time then after race went back to shower at campsite packed tent away then went home .Only prob was traffic getting home .

Another tip! Book a train ticket at least 14 days in advance and you will get some real savings. I was quoted £71 for a single to Bournemouth by Railtrack. When I got on the 'web' I managed to get the same journey for £24.30!! Get onto Railtracks timetables and look at which companies do which part of the journey, then get on each respectives website and do the ordering yourself...easy peasy

When comparing GNR with London one should remember that due to the North Sea all the traffic has to head in the same direction out of South Sheilds. London has infinately better communications, i.e. more than 1 tube station. With the GNR at least you don't have to visit the venue twice once to pick up the running number ( as it was in 2000). I do the GNR each year, fortunately have access to free accomodation in Felling nearby so apart from queueing for metro or buses, both in my experience have similar travelling/waiting times and the southbound A1 which always queues through Yorkshire its a great day out.

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